You know that moment when your eyes meet a cute guy’s across the crowded bar and you feel your cheeks blush? Every magazine article about flirting always says that is the perfect moment to smile, and take a drink. However, every time that moment happens to me, I glance away out of embarrassment because I just got caught looking. Flirting and I are not friends. I remember in middle school, a guy I liked forgot money to get into our school’s basketball game, and my two best friends (who knew I liked him), thought it would be the perfect opportunity for me to win him over with kindness. So I paid the two dollars for him to get in, and he climbs the bleachers, sits next to a girl I’ll call Abby, and asks her to be his girlfriend. Lesson learned. I wouldn’t say that moment wrecked my flirting capabilities, but it definitely showed me that while kindness is valuable, it’s definitely doesn’t always carry the same weight in the field of flirting. So in honor of still having horrible flirting skills (albeit remarkably better ones), here are seven GIFs that completely summarize just about every flirting experience.
1. The initial moment when your eyes meet across the room
2. The second time your eyes meet, and you try to wink or smile or fake laugh with your friends.
3. Finally, officially, acknowledging the person in hopes that they’ll acknowledge you.
4. The approach… enough said.
5. That moment when you go to say something funny and instead, and intelligible mess comes out.
6. And then you try to do something nice (I know how that turns out).
7. And when your flirting finally works out for the better…